Report

Contents 1. executive summary 3 1.2. Key Recommendations 4 2. INTRODUCTION 5 2.1. The Purpose of the Plan 5 2.2. Background Information 6 3. Situation Analysis 7 3.1. 5C ANALYSIS 7 3.2. SWOT ANALYSIS 8 3.3. Website report card 9 3.4. Conclusions 12 4.1. Profit 12 4.2. Sales 13 4.3. Customer Acquisition and Conversion 13 4.4. Traffic 13 4.5. Website Visibility 14 4.6. Other Objectives - Email Marketing 14 5.1. Market Segments and Target Market 15 5.2. POSITIONING 16 5.3. COMPETITIVE STRATEGY 16 5.4. SWOT STRATEGIES 16 5.5. PRODUCT / MARKET STRATEGIES 17 5.6. REVENUE MODEL 20 6.1. Online Marketing Mix 21 6.3. Search Engine Optimization 24 6.4. Online Advertising 26 6.5 Social Media Marketing 26 6.6. Email Marketing 27 6.7. Other Tactics 28 8.2. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 32 9. Conclusion 32 Appendix 34 Interview With The Client 34

The key findings that our team found on the La Grotta del Formaggio website identify areas that LGDF is doing well at currently and areas that could use improvement. In particular, our consulting team has specifically evaluated the website based on key components that make a successful website; the key to success is the 7 C’s: content, context connection, communication, community, and commerce. The findings are outlined below:

Content:

· Pictures: nice, warm, welcoming, colourful

· Opportunity to implement videos and sound

· Product list does not include prices

· Opportunity to include retail, wholesale, and catering info under same tab

· “Contact Us” only has email address, currently no telephone contact number

· “Find Us” shows customer where products are carried, but not where LGDF is actually located (address, google map, etc)

Context

· Visual layout and design are well-done overall

· Site has tabs, is user friendly

Connection

· The website includes many different business logos (wholesalers), not enough linking though

· However, there is one link to company “BINDI”; LGDF distributes their products

Communication

· LGDF has social media tools in order to communicate with the public; these include Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Community

· User to user communication could be implemented through a forum or the blog

Commerce

· Customers currently unable to order online (no transaction capability)

Customization

· No website personalization for users

These are some of the key recommendations we have for La Grotta del Formaggio:

· Include all business areas under one heading (i.e. catering, retail, and wholesale under “Services” tab)

· Merge La Grotta del Formaggio email with LGDF email

· Have contact number available and easy to find on the website

· Add address/location under “Find Us” tab

· Allow two-way communication on the website via forum/blog

· Include more partnership links on the LGDF website and ask partners to post link to LGDF on their website(s)

· Add more detailed product descriptions

· Add product prices

· Ensure up-to-date information is continuously provided

· Monitor and measure website traffic, conversion rate, clicks, bounce back rate, etc.

· Include an opt-in e-newsletter as part of an email marketing strategy

· Include an online purchasing option on the website

The purpose of this document is to go over the online marketing plan and its accompanying details for La Grotta del Formaggio in great detail. Our overarching vision is to create a highly interactive, effective, and sustainable integrated marketing communications system for the online portion of LGDF’s business. There is undoubtedly a fantastic opportunity for La Grotta del Formaggio to increase its presence online. If we are able to develop a stronger online marketing presence and cultivate the ability to drive traffic to LGDF’s website and pages, then many more customers will be reached, which will hopefully lead to a major increase in sales.

Having a strong online presence is the key to being successful in the 21st century. Our goal is to use online marketing as a way of strengthening the foundation of the overall business. We want to assist LGDF in showing each and every one of its customers the value they have to offer as efficiently and effectively as possible.

For example, one of LGDF’s strongest suits is the fact that they are providing their customers with a tremendous amount of value in relation to the prices they are paying. To further promote this, the price of each product offered should be listed on the menu on the website.

We also want to optimize the website in order for it to be as user-friendly as possible. There should be a section on the website that clearly indicates what the retail, or in-store, product options are. There should also be a section on the website that is dedicated to wholesalers. Finally, there should be a portion of the website that is specifically for the catering services that La Grotta del Formaggio provides.

In order to drive traffic to the physical store, it is very important that La Grotta Del Formaggio includes an easily found “Find Us” page, in which the store’s address is clearly stated. Simple strategies such as making sure the store’s address is simple to locate on the website will help to ensure that customers do not get frustrated and exit the window before learning the information they are seeking.

Overall, the real purpose of this plan is to simply lay out the steps we will take in order to increase La Grotta Del Formaggio’s presence on social media, set up an integrated online marketing system so that each page links to other relevant pages, and to concurrently drive much more traffic to the website. If all goes as planned, these improvements in La Grotta del Formaggio’s online marketing system will increase the chances of customers being either prompted to pay a personal visit to the store or prompted to make an online purchase once they land on the website.

La Grotta Del Formaggio has been in the retail business for 40 years. The business provides a variety of specialized products imported from Italy; its main specialty is its vast array of the finest cheeses available in the market. The business has expanded into a wholesale business.

The wholesale division deals with distribution, importing, and also includes a wine agent. Its main customers are restaurants, hotels, and other delis that LGDF supplies.

LGDF has grown in its catering services, and the company sells packaged food items to other businesses such as London Drugs with its “prepared grab and go” product line, and local cafes with prepared breakfast and lunch items such as sandwiches, yogurt, and wraps.

All products need to be delivered in a timely manner, and LGDF provides same day service.

La Grotta Del Formaggio is a small business based in Vancouver, Canada. Currently, LGDF has one location on Commercial Drive. We want to design LGDF’s website to enhance and add visibility to the brand image and to also gather market data. The following is a situational analysis of the LGDF website, consisting of a 5C and SWOT analysis.

Context:

This is a method that is used to analyze the environment in which a business operates. The biggest environmental climate or context that affects LGDF is the technological environment. LGDF must offer a new way of satisfying the needs of their target market. Organizations, people, and brands are always looking for new and different ways to advertise their business. While LGDF’s website, one can easily get to the products page where they can find a list of different types of Italian products such as cheese, chocolate, or even coffee.

Company:

La Grotta del Formaggio is a small Italian deli filled with incredible products that could make anyone feel as though they are standing in a store in Italy. In 2005, Domenico the owner, with the help of his father, expanded the small Commercial Drive store into a large specialty distributor, now serving Metro Vancouver and beyond with high quality products. This all started by LGDF concentrating and focusing on high end hotels and restaurants; they have now expanded their distribution network and supply large and independent retailers as well.

Competition:

· Bosa Foods, which is currently under renovation, located on Victoria Drive. They now have a temporary store while Bosa is under construction.

· Cioffi’s, who is a wholesale competitor that offers similar products; the difference between them and LGDF is that they specialize in meat, while LGDF specializes in cheese.

· Santa Barbara, who offer similar products at cheaper prices. The one difference, however, is that the quality of their products is not nearly as good. Many customers reported not having a good experience while visiting their store.

Customer:

La Grotta del Formaggio has customers of all different ages who seek out and enjoy Italian products, especially Italian foods.

Collaborators:

You can find La Grotta del Formaggio’s products in many retail stores such as Save-on-Foods, London Drugs, Whole Foods, and Marketplace IGA. LGDF also offers its services to other companies such as the Hyatt Regency, the Old Spaghetti Factory, and the Hub Restaurant.

Current Situation

Strengths:

Wholesale, same-day delivery (custom orders), customer service, loyal customers, many long-term staff members, good reputation, and strong relations with suppliers, businesses, and customers alike.

Weakness:

Turnover with shorter-term staff members (need improved training manual/program for new hires in order to streamline processes - only verbal instruction used currently), dependent on the owner to be available, and at capacity for space.

Opportunity:

Growing business, need more space to expand, appeal to community and small business, and approached by Waves for partnership. Not to mention all of the aforementioned opportunities with optimizing website and online marketing.

Threats:

Wholesale competition (recently lost business for a local line of cheese with local vendor to another business), aggressive competitors, and the increasing cost of living in Vancouver (consumers are cutting back on fine foods).

To summarize the aforementioned data, it is evident that there is no global rank for La Grotta del Formaggio’s website and that their local traffic rank is pretty low. We have also learned that their website is not fully optimized to appear at the top of Google’s search engine; this is something that we must change in order to achieve a much larger presence online. There are many opportunities that we can capitalize on, including the implementation of an online purchasing system and setting up two-way online communication between LGDF-and-user and user-to-user. We can also implement incoming links to the LGDF website, which should dramatically increase traffic to the website.

4. OBJECTIVES

La Grotta del Formaggio should obtain a 15% increase in profit as a result of this online marketing campaign.

The potential to increase sales is highly achievable for La Grotta Del Formaggio. We would like to have an increase in sales of 15%, this is inclusive of both online consumers and physical “walk in” consumers. Our goal is to penetrate the saturated market of niche products offered by LGDF and attract consumers who are buying from competitors. We believe that this is possible due to the fact of LGDF having lower prices, which can allow them to effectively compete in the market place. LGDF also has the attribute of friendliness on its side, which allows consumers to create a bond with the company and relate to its brand image, compared to the bigger companies which are more commercialized and generic in their product and service offerings.

A good acquisition strategy is one that is based on a well-defined target market and market research information. It is much easier to attract new customers when focusing on those most likely to buy instead of every person who could potentially buy. We can do this by mainly using Google AdWords and the keyword planner to help focus more on the target market.

The implementation of digital marketing tools such as Google Analytics, website search engine optimization (SEO), social media optimization (SMO), Google AdWords campaigns, email marketing, and other tools is estimated to drastically increase the website traffic for La Grotta del Formaggio. In order to increase traffic to the website, we will use a number of different SEO techniques. We will also increase our presence on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The La Grotta del Formaggio website is most likely to be found by customers/potential customers online through search engine results.

Search engine visibility is an important tool that assists in increasing profits for any business; without this tool, many businesses such as LGDF would fall out of competition.

There are some steps that we can perform to ensure La Grotta Del Formaggio’s website visibility is increased.

· Increasing presence on social media

Building effective La Grotta del Formaggio accounts on different social media platforms will enhance the company’s overall visibility. Setting up business accounts on Facebook and Twitter is only the first step; these accounts have to be up-to-date with news and promotions. Also, communicating with customers over social media is an effective promotional tool.

· Making a video connection

This includes creating an account on YouTube and posting short videos about LGDF products and latest promotions.

· Add "Alt Text" to images

One big advantage that La Grotta Del Formaggio has is in their partnerships with famous brands around Vancouver such as London Drugs, Whole Foods, Save-on-Foods, and others. There are about 37 different images of brands and companies linked to LGDF on the current “Find Us” page. Adding Alt Text to these brand images will link the LGDF site with these famous brands, which will assuredly increase website visibility.

La Grotta Del Formaggio should undoubtedly implement an email marketing plan. This would include a bi-weekly e-newsletter, and would be relatively affordable to implement. Both online and offline customers could opt-in to the email list; offline customers in the retail store can be asked if they would like to join - that information can be manually gathered by an employee. On the other hand, the LGDF website can include an option to subscribe to emails for online visitors/customers.

These emails would be tailored for specific targeted groups such as retail customers or for restaurant managers that are supplied by the LGDF wholesale division. LGDF would need to get permission to distribute the e-mails/e-newsletters, and would also have to include an “unsubscribe” option that is easily accessible to customers.

La Grotta del Formaggio’s target customer is one who is in the middle to high annual income bracket. This typically includes people who want to eat high quality foods and who do not mind spending the money for it. LGDF also has a large Business-to-Business (B2B) side of operations, which includes its numerous wholesale partnerships.

The products offered by LGDF are focused in the niche market of Italian specialty foods. Because LGDF is operating within a very specific niche, it needs to implement a highly targeted marketing strategy. We need to be targeting the small percentage of people who want to be aware of the kinds of unique services LGDF is offering over its competitors.

STP

Segmenting:

3 areas of business (retail, wholesale, catering)

Targeting:

La Grotta del Formaggio currently has no form of paid advertising; almost all sales are based off of word of mouth, free press, and light usage of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Positioning:

LGDF is positioned in a niche market, and one that includes a number of stores offering high quality products. LGDF operates from a “best value” pricing strategy, in which they are offering high quality products at fantastic prices.

There are two main things that La Grotta del Formaggio must focus on when targeting its customers.

Firstly, they have to position their products with respect to the consumers who are most likely to buy the products they are offering. Vancouver is the perfect market for this kind of Italian speciality foods store, due to the city’s popularity and its high demand for more organic and healthier foods.

Secondly, La Grotta del Formaggio should position its products to be sold to businesses which have already made a footprint in the niche market area. Their consumers are more likely to buy the products due to the relationship they have already formed with that brand. This will result in the demand for LGDF products increasing as along with awareness and customer retention.

Our recommendation is for La Grotta del Formaggio to sustain its hybrid pricing strategy - providing high quality products to customers at reasonable prices. This is due to the competitive advantage that this gives LGDF over its direct competitors. The quality of products offered by LGDF is better than those of any its competitors (...and at lower price points, too). LGDF is a small business, however, it is able to succeed by keeping its prices lower than big companies such as Whole Foods.

La Grotta del Formaggio needs to build on its competitive assets to strategically compete with its rivals. One of LGDF’s main assets is its long-term customer and brand loyalty, as the business has been around for many years. LGDF has established large word-of-mouth, referral based marketing that has been quite effective. LGDF also receives free media in the form of newspaper articles and awards.

LGDF should have an offensive and proactive strategy to keep its market share and retain its customers. There are several initiatives that the company can take; for instance, LGDF can start a customer loyalty program. When it comes to e-marketing, LGDF can plan to:

· Appoint someone to be in charge of providing current and up-to-date information for the website.

· Find ways to make the website more attractive and interesting

· Tip of the day, favourite recipes, articles, etc.

· Have a contest for online subscribers to the e-newsletter

· Share customers’ favourite recipes monthly

· Educate customers on various products

· Advertise online through Google ads, stressing the fact that LGDF provides customers with the best-value pricing for the highest quality of products.

· Implement an online flyer with weekly promotions. This could include discounts or added value promotions, such as buy 2 cheeses, get a free artisan jam!

· Add webpage or tab under “About Us” entitled “Corporate Social Responsibility”. Allow for customers to vote for a cause that LGDF will donate a portion of its proceeds or highlight its efforts towards.

These efforts, amongst others, should be implemented by La Grotta del Formaggio in order to further distinguish it from its competitors.

Here are some of LGDF’s competitors:

· Bosa Foods. This company is a major threat to La Grotta del Formaggio; they are currently renovating a store located underneath a residence building on Victoria Drive. Bosa has a temporary store while under construction, yet this temporary store has not had an overwhelming impact on LGDF’s business.

· Cioffi’s. A wholesale competitor more-so than retail, but they offer the same or similar products. However, they specialize in meat, as opposed to LGDF, who specializes in cheese.

· Santa Barbara. They have products and offers that are more affordable, however their quality is not of the same level as LGDF; they have also been known to provide little in the way of a satisfying customer experience.

It is absolutely essential for La Grotta del Formaggio to improve its marketing strategies in order to better compete in today’s market of specialty Italian foods in Vancouver. There is a fantastic opportunity for LGDF to improve its presence online in order to increase traffic to its website, increase reach and awareness, and increase conversion rate. The current website, albeit visually appealing, does not represent the vast range of different products and services that LGDF provides all that well.

Let’s go over the current situation regarding La Grotta del Formaggio’s products, prices, places, and promotion. Afterwards, we will present you with a number of different suggestions on how improve and better LGDF’s online marketing strategies. A vast improvement in LGDF’s online marketing strategies will help to increase its online performance, which will in turn extend its reach and improve sales.

Product: Since La Grotta del Formaggio was one of the first Italian specialty food stores in Vancouver, it is important to implement a strong, integrated online marketing mix while ensuring that the products offered and feel of the deli remain authentically Italian. If there is one area in this field where there is a fantastic opportunity for LGDF to improve and expand, then it is in the level of detail and descriptions of products on the website.

Currently, the website has different tabs for each type of product that La Grotta del Formaggio has to offer (i.e. baked goods, cheeses, chocolate, coffee, etc). However, once one clicks on any of these tabs, they will see that there is little to no detailed information about any of these products available on the website; improving this facet of lgdf.ca has the potential to drastically increase online sales. When it comes to online marketing and fully optimizing a website, it is important to understand that “content is king”. This means that we must provide the consumer with as much relevant information as possible in order to provide them with value and to influence their purchasing habits.

Our team recommends that LGDF implement some short descriptions about each of these different types of products. Detailed descriptions about the products that LGDF carries will provide those who access the website with much more information, which can have a drastic effect on their decision of whether to purchase or not. In this rapidly-evolving digital era, customers generally want to know as much as possible about what they will be purchasing before they make the commitment. Once there has been more information added to each of these product sections, the customer will be more likely to make a purchasing decision since their knowledge of the products will be much more extensive.

Price: We understand that La Grotta del Formaggio is currently focused on a hybrid pricing strategy; this pricing strategy is optimal in the digital marketing era. Customers, now more than ever, want to feel as though they are getting fantastic value for their investments. We recommend that LGDF focus more closely on actively displaying its pricing options on the website. By displaying the list prices for each product, potential customers will be able to see the fantastic value they are receiving for the price they are paying. This will undoubtedly make these individuals more inclined to purchase products from LGDF, which will in turn increase the site’s conversion rate.

There is now greater price competition than ever before and, as a result, many organizations are viciously battling one another in this area in order to remain competitive. With one of La Grotta Del Formaggio’s strong suits being the value it brings its customers, it seems like the natural next step would be to clearly display this value on the website for all to see. If it is widely known that LGDF provides its customers with incredible value, then direct competitors will find it more difficult to stay competitive with LGDF in the long term.

Place: La Grotta del Formaggio’s primary location, 1791 Commercial Drive, is mentioned in the “About Us” section of the website, but is not currently displayed under the “Find Us” tab. It will be hard to drive some of those online users to the store if they have difficulty finding out where LGDF’s location is. Potential customers may not have the patience to sift through the entire site to find the store’s location; it is essential that we fully optimize the “Find Us” page in order to provide customers with this information.

Aside from website optimization, having an “Order Here” page on the website may greatly increase La Grotta Del Formaggio’s sales. Online shopping is becoming more prevalent as time progresses. It is important for LGDF to be ahead of the curve here, and implement an online purchasing option on its website. This new “Order Here” page would allow customers to purchase LGDF’s products online and then either pick their order up in store or have it delivered to them. The addition of such an option on the LGDF website would allow customers to make purchases without having to leave their homes and make the potentially extensive trek down to Commercial Drive. This is an absolutely critical tool to implement in today’s ever-evolving digital world - it is the way of the future.

Promotion: La Grotta del Formaggio has a major opportunity to improve its online promotional tactics in 2016. The makeup of our proposed online integrated marketing communications strategy involves online advertising in the form of pay-per-click ads, social media promotion, and email marketing. These three areas of online communication are too extensive to discuss here; they will be detailed elaborately in the following section.

People: La Grotta del Formaggio focuses on providing its customers with a highly personalized, “all-in-the-family” type of service, and this is what we feel the website should represent. One of the primary reasons as to why customers come to LGDF is because of the highly authentic, warm, and friendly Italian feel. Naturally, we believe that the website should encompass and conjure up the same feelings while also being user-friendly and easy to navigate. The website should be fully optimized for both LGDF’s retail customers and business partners.

Process: As mentioned earlier, La Grotta del Formaggio’s social media accounts have to seamlessly be integrated into the website. The website must afford customers the ability to navigate it effortlessly. In today’s day and age, consumers no longer have the time or patience to spend hours or even minutes trying to find something. The website should be optimized to be as user friendly as possible in order to increase conversion rate and customer satisfaction.

Physical Evidence/Experience: The website will need to be incredible in order for customers to be able to enjoy a truly great experience whilst viewing it. Customers want to be wowed, and an organization’s website, Twitter page, Facebook page, monthly emails, and other online marketing platforms and tactics must leave a strong impression in their minds.

An Italian specialty food supplies more than 20 famous retailers around Vancouver. Besides, supplies more than 14 different brands of food services. This model will generate revenues from the distribution the quality products of LGDF to many different famous retailers that have a good reputation around Vancouver.

Taking an advantage of the strong relationships with retailers will help LGDF to expand and generate higher revenues.

We plan on implementing the online marketing strategies that will be discussed here in order order to target the current customers that La Grotta del Formaggio has, as well as new potential customers.

Product:

La Grotta del Formaggio has variety of brands and products, including a vast array of meats, cheeses, olive oils, and chocolates.

Promotion tactics

i. Advertising (including PPC/Google AdWords campaign)

Our main strategy is to use Google AdWords to optimize the search engine results and increase traffic.

ii. SEO

Google Adwords and other optimization tools can have a great impact on building the company’s image and Internet marketing strategy. Based on the website report card that we have developed, LGDF’s currently website ranking is low. Our main goal, using a Google AdWords PPC campaign and linking social media pages to our website page, is for the search engine ranking to dramatically increase. Google AdWords optimizes the keyword selection based on relevant search criteria.

iii. Social media

We will increase the activity of La Grotta del Formaggio’s social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram); the main reason for doing so is to promote and advertise the products that LGDF has to offer.

Place / Distribution Orders can be currently placed in person at the LGDF store. However, we are going to implement an online purchasing option for customers.

Price La Grotta del Formaggio focuses on a hybrid pricing strategy - offering the best products available at bargain prices for the customer.

Capitalizing on opportunities to upgrade the content, structure, and functionality of the La Grotta del Formaggio website is key in order to improve search engine optimization, user-friendliness, and viewer engagement.

Here is a look at the web site map that we have planned out for La Grotta del Formaggio:

Here is the wireframe for the future La Grotta del Formaggio website’s home page:

Visual Layout:

We will be handing our web site map and wireframing drafts over to a graphic designer who will then, based on our materials and recommendations, create a visual layout for the La Grotta del Formaggio website.

It is important that we outsource this part of the project to a graphic designer; the website must look as visually appealing as possible, and hiring an expert in this field is key to our success. With the assistance of a top-tier graphic designer, we will be able to stylistically design the images, colours, and fonts used on the website in order to make it as engaging and attractive as possible.

Keyword density is a major component of search engine optimization. When doing research for the keywords people most often search for (to determine which consumers to target and which keywords would be most effective), it was concluded that the keyword “finest foods” had a more positive result than other related keywords such as “specialty foods”. To differentiate La Grotta del Formaggio from other fine foods delis, we have included “The finest foods from Italy ” in the description meta tag.

SEO Changes – Page by Page (Instructions for web site designer)

When a website has been fully optimized using search engine optimization, it will be more focused towards the target market and produce better results. La Grotta del Formaggio can add to this SEO by creating advertisements that are specific to various ad groups on their website. Google Adwords can be a great tool that is easy to use and is effective for this purpose. For example, this advertisement is specific for anyone who searches for “cheese”, and it displays the main features (its benefits, it prompts consumer to action [“order today”], and it includes an incentive “save 10%” deal). Repeating keywords and adding a link to a special landing page (destination URL) is important. This technique has the power to increase LGDF’s conversion rate with just a couple of clicks.

La Grotta del Formaggio has existing social media accounts which are active; however, the reach of the posts can be bettered and social pages further optimized. We strongly recommend that the budget for the social media campaign is increased considerably. Enhancing social media posts with more intriguing content would create a greater opportunity for discussion amongst customers. This would also lead to the increase of even greater word of mouth advertising. By sharing as much important information as possible, and by concentrating on the posts which get the most attention, LGDF will be able to drive its customers to purchase from the website and in store on a more frequent basis.

It is important to tweet and retweet posts relating to LGDF’s products and services. These tweets and retweets will attract more consumers using similar products, and will hopefully provide them with the incentive to try La Grotta del Formaggio’s products and perhaps form a loyal relationship with the store.

The main drawback that La Grotta del Formaggio has, in terms of email marketing, is the different email addresses it currently provides for its different market segments. LGDF should merge its different email addresses into one email address, as this comes off as more authentic and professional towards customers.

We recommend that only one of the two email addresses is used, however the email must be set up so that there are various groups within the email marketing category (one for business-to-customer, one for business-to-business, and one for catering). La Grotta del Formaggio should also try to integrate its social media handles and links into the emails, which would allow users to follow and track LGDF’s activities on a more regular basis. Emails will be sent out to customers, wholesalers, and those interested in the catering aspect of LGDF’s business on a bi-weekly basis. This will ensure that we are not over saturating subscribers’ inboxes, yet there will still be enough activity to ensure that we are staying relevant and up-to-date in customers’ minds.

Although we will be focusing mainly on search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing during this particular campaign, there are a few different forms of online marketing that we can look towards for future implementation.

The most important of these is perhaps mobile marketing. As the years move along, more and more people are beginning to spend the majority of their time online using their phones as a conduit rather than their computer or laptop. In a few years time, a large portoin of online advertising will likely be focused on mobile marketing. There is currently not enough evidence to suggest that mobile marketing is more effective than the online marketing methods we have chosen to go with for this campaign, but we need to plan on implementing at least some form of mobile marketing in the near future.

We can look towards developing a phone application, which will allow us to send alerts called “push notifications” to customers, which will provide them with information regarding promotions, deals, new menu options, and many other features and benefits that La Grotta del Formaggio has to offer. This kind of application has the potential to be extremely effective in a vast number of areas, including the expansion of LGDF’s audience and an increase in LGDF’s conversion rate.

While we want to focus solely on search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, social media marketing, and email marketing for now, it is crucial to look towards the future in order to see what other online marketing trends are forming, so that we can strike when the kettle is hot.

7.1. BUDGET

Preparing a budget that provides La Grotta del Formaggio with an optimal return on investment (ROI) is crucial in ensuring that this plan is successful. In order to provide LGDF with a fantastic visual representation of this, we have used a feature from the ClickZ website called the “Website Optimization ROI Calculator”. We will display the results first, and then we will interpret them.

So, how do we interpret these results?

To start, currently La Grotta del Formaggio is experiencing approximately 1,250 unique visits to its website each month. Based on the information that LGDF has provided us, and based on our findings, we have determined that approximately 40 of these 1,250 visitors actually come into the store to purchase products; this gives us a current conversion rate of 3.20%.

We have proposed that by implementing the online marketing plan laid out in this document, LGDF will be able to increase its website traffic by 60%, and increase its conversion rate by 15%.

We have estimated a cost of $7,000 for the entire online marketing campaign, which includes search engine optimization costs, pay-per-click advertising costs, social media marketing costs, email marketing costs, our salaries, and the website design contractor’s salary.

With all of these numbers in place, La Grotta del Formaggio should see a ROI of 1% monthly and 15% annually.

Although the implementation of such an integrated online marketing campaign is not cheap, these numbers show that the investment will prove to be well worth it for La Grotta del Formaggio.

7.2. ACTION PLAN

The action plan for La Grotta del Formaggio is to put into action improvement strategies for the various areas in which the company lacks in online marketing. The website is visually appealing, however, it is not optimized to its full potential as there are no add-ons which would allow an increase to the overall bottom line of the company.

We recommend that LGDF establish a singular email address which will accommodate each its retail, wholesale, and catering segments; this will allow the company to display a more professional and unifying front.

Secondly, LGDF should concentrate on SEO, as this will boost traffic to the website. The keywords used in the ad campaigns should be chosen very carefully, as they are key in driving consumers to the website.

Lastly, La Grotta del Formaggio has a fantastic opportunity to boost its activity on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as many customers are likely to spend more time on social media rather than surfing the web looking for the specific products and services LGDF has to offer.

8.1. PROCESS

In order for us to track our progress, we will measure the estimated web rank using Alexa after implementing the strategies and tactics presented in this document. In addition, we will test the link popularity of the website to figure out where the website comes up for search engines websites such as Bing, Google, and Yahoo. We will also look at the social mentions received after fully optimizing La Grotta del Formaggio’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts; this will allow us to determine whether the number of mentions has increased or not. By performing the aforementioned actions, we will be able to track our progress as planned and see what continuously needs to be improved.

1. Increase in conversion rate (wholesale inquires and retail sales increasing by 10%+)

2. Increase in click-through-rate (CTR)

3. Decrease in bounce back rates (more targeted searches, attract target market, keyword density)

4. Increase in website page rank (top of Google page rank, highly relevant)

5. Compliance with ⅜ rule (SEO optimization, landing pages for all specific areas)

6. PPC Advertising (test, test, test, Google analytics - what works, what needs improvement?)

7. Increase incoming links to the LGDF website (ask distributors to share links)

8. Social mention (more visibility, more content and posting frequency - create buzz)

With our consulting team’s advice and a few tools, La Grotta del Formaggio can implement this E-Marketing plan almost effortlessly.

This plan incorporates the right tools to achieve the objectives outlined; whereby, LGDF will reap the benefits of an improved, search engine optimized website, a higher google page relevance and ranking, not to mention, the ongoing PPC advertisements that will be working around the clock to bring more traffic to your new and improved website: new design layout that is user friendly and easier to find through keyword density.

Now, La Grotta del Formaggio will have an e-mail marketing that targets LGDF’s target segments and a social media strategy that will create more interest, followers, and prompt prospective clients to become customers, and build on existing customer loyalty.

LGDF’s investment of $7,000.00 is expected to have a 15% return on investment due to higher conversion rates based on increased retail traffic and wholesale inquiries created from your online presence. More exciting, La Grotta del Formaggio can explore even more E-Marketing initiatives for future opportunities.

*NOTE: These notes have been left in their rough, original form; they were quickly jotted down during a conversation with La Grotta del Formaggio.

Background info:

Retail – products, catering customers; almost there for 40 years (retail)

Wholesale – Distribution, importing, wine agent: Supply restaurants, hotel, deli

Other package food – outside catering business: London Drug’s “Prepared grab and go”; Cafes: prepared sandwich, yogurt, wraps (breakfast/lunch)

Current Situation

Strengths – Wholesale: Delivery-Same day (custom orders); Customer service; loyal customers; HR- loyal long term staff); Good reputation; build strong relations with suppliers, business, customers; Experience (what you are doing well) Trust.

Weakness – HR-Turn over, need improvement training manual/program for new hires to streamline processes (only verbal instruction used now); product knowledge (in retail); dependent on the owner to be available. At capacity for space and employees to expand more:

Opportunity – Growing business, need more space to expand; appeal to community and small business; Approach by waves …but not certain can handle work – considering graveyard hours (night shift…find those people)

Threats – wholesale (recently lost a line for local cheese from local vender; gave to other business; Aggressive competitors (competitive environment). Retail- Cost of living - Consumers are cutting back on fine foods, buying less: shopping somewhere else? – larger families (shop at Costco?)

employees need hire wages; difficult to find good employees.

Main competitors:

· Bosa Foods – under renovation – investing now – built in residence (on Victoria drive). Now have a temporary store while in construction (by brittania…but hasn’t slowed business down recently)

· Cioffi’s: wholesale competitor more than retail but offer same products (difference specialize in meat vs. LGDF specializes in Cheese)

· Santa Barba – has produce but offers cheaper deli products (quality and price); not great customer experience

Current Strategy

Segmenting – 3 areas business

Targeting – retail-no advertising: word of mouth, free press, social media Twitter, Instagram, facebook

Wholesale: word of mouth and promote in store; other buyers…

Positioning – niche market, higher prices/higher quality but same products are more expensive elsewhere…ie: santa Barbra: may appear less expensive but different product: Yet, wholefoods would cost more for same product

Marketing Mix

Product – Variety of brands and products; variety price points; custom sandwiches: customers like to participate in process (experience)

Price – Offer best for quality (hybrid); range of product/prices

Promotion – no advertising; no printed flyers or brochure; sandwich program; does have a menu and description (standard items)

Place – good location in Little Italy; yet, space is limited in current locations (warehouse and retail) and available space is difficult to access.

People - Customer and business relations

Process – Physical evidence: packaging (don't do a lot, not great, don’t make own products); except LD, Cafes (labels with logos). Logo on shopping bags only. Branding could improve.

Customer experience – area of improvement for consistency (staff) and atmosphere (need music always played) which sometimes does not happen.

Other comments:

Buyer using LGDF supplier name for Mini Deli – Donald market (new west) – was not profitable to run on their own as part of the business.

Check out Yelp:

Online Website:

One website but two domain names that go to same website: La grotto del formaggio.com and LGDF.com is one; more targeted for wholesale not retail.

Email: LGDF

Email:

Our recommendations in the Online Marketing Plan:

Including all of SBU

Service-catering

Layout/design

Pricing: INFO…

Wholesale

Threat of competitors (unless)…

Wholesale: sales reps: i-pads – eliminated paper

How much are you spending on hire

Show product through other supplier’s websites.

Type of business online or

Retail orders: for online buying

Would need to restructure/hire, etc.

· Create interest and attention

o Next step to buy

Monitor/measuring the website?

GFS online ordering connection

Montecristo bakery

Set up account; LOG IN: order and view

Snow caps: cc’ rep, order via email

Search products: difficult to itemize

Reviews…

Best Italian caterer …searched and came up.

Media Coverage:

Free exposure *usually come in top deli (sometimes ad to thank those customers that give support).

West ender

Courier: ppl vote

Sponsor some events and attend for exposure:

Ie: Italian day booth, Bici Gusti (bike, whistler)

Passports: full page ad in book

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